Ibah Mahli

Up until his untimely demise, Ibah Mahli was perhaps the most famous and influential writer in all of Ghyll. His works, though never officially collected, undoubtably contain a significant portion of the many Ghyllian classics, although it is impossible to be certain.

The real problem is, nobody is entirely sure exactly which books are his. He had an unfortunate habit of using pen names when he wrote, and it is sometimes difficult to tell if a book is a genuine Mahli or merely written in a similar style by someone with a particularly fake-sounding name. For instance, Ferrestung Longraze is undoubtably a Mahli psudonym - he said as much in a piece of personal correspondance - but is Perry Tocklewits? Some scholars say yes, some scholars say no. To make things even more confusing, some writers who were quite probably NOT Ibah Mahli have used his name in their works, under the impression that he never really existed and his name was available for anyone's use.

This is not true. Ibah Mahli quite definitely existed. He was, in his time, a very public figure and an official Bearer of Bad News. He had an entire wing built for him in the Odlucian Library (which is, strangely enough, rumored to not contain a single copy of any one of his many books) and he was well-known for his habit of giving candy to small children if they passed him in the street. He was also well known as a worshipper of Hopdurg.

The fact that he died in mysterious circumstances doesn't help matters. Ibah was, as the legend has it, walking down the street, minding his own business, when he appeared to notice something in the distance which nobody else could see. Eyewitnesses claim (supposedly) that he stared for a few seconds, then shrieked and ran away in the opposite direction. He was (purportedly) discovered the next day lying dead in the middle of the street. Unfortunately, nobody knows what happened to the body, and while many people know the story of his death, it has proven impossible to track down the identities of any of the witnesses to confirm its accuracy. Certain people claim that Ibah Mahli died because he knew too much about the Intellectuals' Conspiracy, and that he was recording their secrets in his books, hidden behind layers of intricate codes, which just goes to show what nonsense some people will insist on believing.

In any case, his books - whichever ones they are - will live on into the future, inspiring generations to come.